Hall Voters Pick Messier and Stevens In First Year

By DAVE CALDWELL

Published: June 29, 2007

Mark Messier was on a cruise with his parents and Scott Stevens was about to clean his kitchen floor yesterday when they received the news that they had been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

''I still don't have the floor done yet,'' Stevens said three hours later.

Stevens, the ferocious defenseman who led the Devils to three Stanley Cups, and Messier, the steely captain of the Rangers team that won the 1994 Stanley Cup, will be inducted with center Ron Francis and defenseman Al MacInnis on Nov. 12.

Only four former players can be inducted in any one year.

''The Hall of Fame, as I've said in the last couple of days, is a tough place to get into, and it's a tough vote,'' MacInnis said. ''I wasn't going to hold my breath. There were a lot of great players out there.''

Jim Gregory, a senior vice president for the N.H.L. and the former general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, was also elected in the builders' (nonplayers) category.

Hall of Fame officials, keeping with policy, did not release how many votes each player received, but it was no surprise that Messier and Stevens made it in their first year of eligibility.

Messier, 46, played in the N.H.L for 25 years and helped the Edmonton Oilers win the Stanley Cup five times before he led the Rangers to their first Stanley Cup championship since 1940. His jersey, No. 11, was retired by each team.

Asked if he would enter the Hall as an Oiler or as a Ranger, Messier, speaking on a conference call with reporters, playfully replied, ''Hopefully, they can sew a jersey together and split it down the middle.''

Stevens, who retired before the 2005-6 season, played 1,635 regular-season games, a league record for defensemen, and was a member of a Devils team that won Cups in 1995, 2000 and 2003.